Cellular RNA labeling strategies based on bioorthogonal chemical reactions are much less developed in comparison to glycan, protein and DNA due to its inherent instability and lack of effective methods to introduce bioorthogonal reactive functionalities (e.g. azide) into RNA. Here we report the development of a simple and modular posttranscriptional chemical labeling and imaging technique for RNA by using a novel toolbox comprised of azide-modified UTP analogs. These analogs facilitate the enzymatic incorporation of azide groups into RNA, which can be posttranscriptionally labeled with a variety of probes by click and Staudinger reactions. Importantly, we show for the first time the specific incorporation of azide groups into cellular RNA by endogenous RNA polymerases, which enabled the imaging of newly transcribing RNA in fixed and in live cells by click reactions. This labeling method is practical and provides a new platform to study RNA in vitro and in cells.

Early stress has been hypothesized to recruit epigenetic mechanisms to mediate persistent molecular, cellular, and behavioral changes. Here, we have examined the consequence of the early life stress of maternal separation (ES) on the gene expression of several histone modifiers that regulate histone acetylation and methylation within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a key limbic brain region that regulates stress responses and mood-related behavior. ES animals exhibit gene regulation of both writer (histone acetyltransferases and histone methyltransferases) and eraser (histone deacetylases and histone lysine demethylases) classes of histone modifiers. While specific histone modifiers (Kat2a, Smyd3, and Suv420h1) and the sirtuin, Sirt4 were downregulated across life within the mPFC of ES animals, namely at postnatal Day 21, 2 months, and 15 months of age, we also observed gene regulation restricted to these specific time points. Despite the decline noted in expression of several histone modifiers within the mPFC following ES, this was not accompanied by any change in global or residue-specific H3 acetylation and methylation. Our findings indicate that ES results in the regulation of several histone modifiers within the mPFC across life, and suggest that such perturbations may contribute to the altered prefrontal structural and functional plasticity observed following early adversity.

X chromosome inactivation occurs in female mammals for the purpose of equalisation of dosage of X linked genes between the two sexes. In eutherian mammals, one of the two copies of the X chromosome present in female individuals is silenced. Epigenetic modifications of both DNA and histones have been implicated to play a crucial role in this inactivation phenomenon. In this work, we have employed a novel method published earlier by us, to assess the DNA methylation levels of genes on the inactive X chromosome in the human system. We have used genomic DNA from cells with the following karyotype namely, 47,XXX and 45,X to compare methylation levels from the active and inactive X. We report differential methylation of genes from the active and the inactive X chromosome with higher number of methylated genes being present on the inactive X chromosome. Our work has also led to identification of motifs that show a significant similarity to microRNA sequences which are enriched in methylated regions specific to the inactive X.

The Asian elephant Elephas maximus and the African elephant Loxodonta africana that diverged 5-7 million years ago exhibit differences in their physiology, behaviour and morphology. A comparative genomics approach would be useful and necessary for evolutionary and functional genetic studies of elephants. We performed sequencing of E. maximus and map to L. africana at ~15X coverage. Through comparative sequence analyses, we have identified Asian elephant specific homozygous, non-synonymous single nucleotide variants (SNVs) that map to 1514 protein coding genes, many of which are involved in olfaction. We also present the first report of a high-coverage transcriptome sequence in E. maximus from peripheral blood lymphocytes. We have identified 103 novel protein coding transcripts and 66-long non-coding (lnc)RNAs. We also report the presence of 181 protein domains unique to elephants when compared to other Afrotheria species. Each of these findings can be further investigated to gain a better understanding of functional differences unique to elephant species, as well as those unique to elephantids in comparison with other mammals. This work therefore provides a valuable resource to explore the immense research potential of comparative analyses of transcriptome and genome sequences in the Asian elephant.

In this work we demonstrate a novel method of methylation detection that utilises immunoaffinity to detect the presence of methylated DNA hybridised to a cDNA microarray. We use a monoclonal antibody specific to 5 methyl cytidine to detect the presence of 5 methyl cytosine in genomic DNA from human fibroblasts bearing the karyotype 45 XO. We report that over 2,900 genes show the presence of methylation in this condition. We also report that 165 genes are consistently methylated in all replicates of these experiments. The methylated genes show a uniform distribution over all the chromosomes. The gene ontology of these also indicates no functional correlation between the genes that are methylated. We detect the presence of methylation in IGF2, an imprinted gene and thus known to harbour DNA methylation. The method is extremely specific and offers a quick and efficient way to analyse the methylation landscape on a high throughput scale. This method uses existing technology to assess methylation and thus can integrate very efficiently into any platform used.